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SF 525

as introduced - 91st Legislature (2019 - 2020) Posted on 01/28/2019 02:59pm

KEY: stricken = removed, old language.
underscored = added, new language.

Current Version - as introduced

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A resolution
relating to ratification of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the United States
Constitution; memorializing Congress to remove the deadline for ratification of the
amendment by the states.

WHEREAS, the United States Constitution does not explicitly guarantee that all the rights
it protects are held equally by all citizens without regard to sex and the only right it specifically
affirms to be equal for women and men is the right to vote in the 19th Amendment; and

WHEREAS, the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause has not been interpreted to
guarantee equal rights on the basis of sex in the same way the Equal Rights Amendment would, as
demonstrated by the fact that currently cases of sex discrimination receive only intermediate scrutiny
but should receive the highest level of strict judicial scrutiny, just as race discrimination does; and

WHEREAS, gender equality under the constitution continues to be timely in the United States
and worldwide, and a number of other nations have achieved constitutional gender equality; and

WHEREAS, the principle of gender equality is contained in the Charter of the United Nations,
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and all subsequent major international human rights
instruments, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women (CEDAW), which has been ratified by 187 other nations; and

WHEREAS, citizens of the United States have been seeking full constitutional equality on
the basis of sex since the Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced in 1923; and

WHEREAS, the Equal Rights Amendment was passed by Congress in 1972 and later ratified
by 37 of the 38 states necessary for inclusion of the amendment into the constitution; and

WHEREAS, Article V of the United States Constitution imposes no time limit for ratification
of amendments; and

WHEREAS, state Equal Rights Amendment ratification votes since 1972 must be considered
sufficiently contemporaneous, given that the Archivist of the United States certified the Madison
(27th) Amendment on May 18, 1992, once three-fourths of the states had ratified it, even though
that amendment was passed by the first Congress of the United States and had a ratification period
lasting 203 years; and

WHEREAS, the restricting time limit for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment is in
the proposing clause and is not a part of the amendment that has already been ratified by 37 states;
and

WHEREAS, Congress is empowered to alter time limits in the proposing clauses of
amendments and has done so once already for the Equal Rights Amendment, when it passed a time
extension on October 20, 1978; and

WHEREAS, the Equal Rights Amendment will finally ensure that all citizens will have equal
rights under the United States Constitution, without regard to sex; and

WHEREAS, the Equal Rights Amendment was ratified by the Legislature of the State of
Minnesota on February 12, 1973; and

WHEREAS, the people of Minnesota are not willing to wait another 200 years for gender
equality; NOW, THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of the State of Minnesota calls on the Congress of
the United States to enact Senate Joint Resolution 15 or House Joint Resolution 113, proposed at
the 113th Congress of the United States, or similar legislation, to remove the deadline for ratification
of the Equal Rights Amendments by the states; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature of the State of Minnesota calls on other
states to join in this action by passing the same or similar resolutions; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the State of Minnesota is directed
to prepare copies of this memorial and transmit them to the President of the United States, the
President and the Secretary of the United States Senate, the Speaker and the Clerk of the United
States House of Representatives, and Minnesota's Senators and Representatives in Congress.